to repentance, which we have or might have heard) notwithstanding all these divine calls, we will not see our danger. nor prepare for death. Alas! surely we must be judicially infatuated, or we would be more sensible of our danger than we really are. Of all the calamities in this calamitous world, none can be more destructive to both soul and body, than war; yet we are on the brink of war, and look upon it with a sullen indifference. Vengeance always did, and always will pursue states, as well as individuals, for unrepented crimes. God has deposited in our care the last remains of civil liberty, and we have violated the sacred deposit. Can a land be sacred to liberty, while a million of its inhabitants are in the most ignoble and tormenting slavery? It is impossible. It is therefore my firm belief, that vengeance is on the wing; and it can only be averted by repentance and deep humiliation. I do, therefore, in the fear of the Almighty, solemnly warn my fellow-worms of their danger, and earnestly exhort

them humbly to repent and reform, that we may once more be a prosperous and happy nation.

But alas! when I remember the lassitude and turpitude of a large majority of what are called the ministers of Christ, these portentous times, I am ready to weep and tremble by turns. Those watchmen cry peace, peace, when God gives the most awful notice of approaching calamities. Those right reverend dons, and lordly doctors of divinity, (who receive from 1500 to 3000 dollars per annum, for reading two sermons every sabbath, in honour of the meek and lowly Jesus) now solace themselves in plenty, at the expence of honour, honesty, and every noble principle; but they will then be punished with signal severity. Instead of calling sinners to repentance with earnestness, and preaching to the poor the everlasting gospel, they array themselves in sacerdotal silk and cambrick, and read with a cold dead monotony, in pulpits fringed with flowers of gold, their written sermons to their rich audi

tories. Should they not imitate our blessed Redeemer, by going about continually, doing good by every possible means to the poor, if they are indeed his disciples and chosen ministers. And if they are not his true ambassadors, are they not more guilty in the sight of God than the highway robber? O ye idle, indolent, elegant, and ungodly clergymen! how can you look your Judge in the face, when you have so long made merchandise of his gospel, and usurped the stations of his true ministers? neither entering heaven yourselves, nor suffering those you call (in the language of monarchy) your people to enter there. How can you expect your just judge to apply this endearing address to you, in the final day of retribution?"Come ye blessed of my Father," &c. " for I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me." Do you think he will utter a palpable falsehood, by applying this address to you, when you live in the habitual neglect of these car

dinal virtues? There are thousands and tens of thousands in the lanes and alleys of our cities, who hear no more of the gospel than the wild Indians on the banks of the Ohio; yet you see them going to destruction, and will not call them to repentance, although you are so well paid to do so? Surely the blood of the poor, and the dollars of the rich, will be required at your hands in a coming day. Many of you have enriched yourselves by imposing upon the credulity of the wondering cheated, priest-ridden multitude; which is far worse than robbery: therefore your riches are now, and will be hereafter, a swift witness against you. If the forebodings of my mind are realized, woe, woe, woe, to the ungodly clergymen of the land!

I will humbly take the liberty to consolidate my remarks on the present portentous signs of the times, by a quotation from the greatest philosopher and statesman in the world, (who is no enthusiast) and from the most popular poet of modern times. The first, speak

ing of the oppression of the African race in the United States, says, “I tremble for my country, when I remember that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever: and that a change of circumstances is among probable events. The Almighty has no attibute which can take side with us in such a conflict." The poetical quotation is equally to the point, namely:

"Sure there is need of social intercourse,
BENEVOLENCE, and peace, and mutual aid,
Between the nations, in a world that seems
To toll the death-bell of its own decease;
And by the voice of all its elements

To preach the general doom. When were the winds
Let slip with such a warrant to destroy?
When did the waves so haughtily o'erleap
Their ancient barriers, deluging the dry?
Fires from beneath, and meteors from above,
Portentous, unexampled, unexplained,
Have kindled beacons in the skies, and th' old
And crazy earth has had her SHAKING fits
More frequent, and foregone her usual rest.”

Since writing the foregoing I have been informed, that a certain Presbyterian minister, in the United States of America, who receives 1200 dollars per annum (for preaching the gospel) at present, has been insisting upon his